If you’re not hearing from your data analysts, it could be that everything is fine, your website humming along like clockwork. But that’s not really a safe assumption to make. The last time an analyst brought you news that there had been an unexpected failure in data capture, you might have been understandably frustrated, and some of that frustration might have ended up being directed at the analyst. How eager do you think that analyst now is to go looking for problems?

I’m pleased to be one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Observepoint Analytics Summit. It’s a free, virtual event, and I hope you’ll sign up for my session. To get you excited about it, here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be talking about: Closing the Loop on Data Validation.Everybody knows the secret to delivering quality data. You check it. You check it right before release. You check it every time a change is made to the campaign or the website, either through a dev release or a Tag Management release. You check it once it’s pushed to production. Then you put it on the list of things to check again periodically.

So many people have written about the pros and cons of Adobe versus Google Analytics (GA). A quick search on the comparison will bring in a huge numberof opinions. As a tracking code solutions provider with a considerable interest in the debate, what fresh perspective can we offer? Let’s start with a bit of background.Origin of GA--launched in November 2005

I’ve worked in digital media and marketing for almost two decades -- but I’ve only been on the data side for a few months, since joining Tracking First. There’s an astonishing amount to absorb! As I’m going through it in real time, I’ve decided to write down my observations. It will be fun to check back in a couple of years, to see how my perspective continues to change. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

I’m guessing that it might have been some time since you last played musical chairs, but you remember how it works: count the number of kids, set that number of chairs, minus one, in a circle, range everyone around the chairs, and start the music. They move warily along the perimeter, sometimes hanging back, sometimes rushing forward, until the music stops. At that point there may be shrieking, jostling, possibly shoving, and then the dust settles: all the chairs are filled, and one dejected child is left standing.

I got a chance to sit down recently with our CEO, Craig Scribner, to ask him a few questions about his past work as an analyst and about the factors that prompted him to found Tracking First.Click here to read Part 1, about founding the company.JR: You've worked as an analyst for most of your career. How do you see the role of data analyst changing?CS: With an increasing number of tools like ours, I hope to see analytics folks move away from being data compliance gatekeepers and become core players who provide insight.

We are proud of our team here at Tracking First! Between us, we have decades of experience in digital media and digital analytics -- and we’re having a ton of fun trying to build a world of better data collection, for everyone. I got a chance to sit down this week with our CEO, Craig Scribner, to ask him about founding the company. It’s an interesting story.JR: Can you tell me a bit about what motivated you to start Tracking First?

I’ve worked in digital media for almost 20 years, with 15 of those years working for an online news publisher supported by advertising. I can tell you that 15 years of watching thousands of ad buys of all sizes and campaign launches of all types, and seeing the subsequent click results, gives you a sixth sense about which ad campaigns are going to generate a response and which will miss the mark entirely. Below are some of the typical traps that vendors fall into in their digital marketing. Almost without exception, these will make a campaign tank. If they seem obvious to you, take comfort that many other vendors are still repeating these mistakes. And rest assured: even though I know these truths in my bones, I still need to be reminded occasionally, too.